Just 281 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’re up to 1,025 signatures, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!
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No surprise here, as the passage of Measure HLA appears to have caught city agencies with their pants down.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that city officials and agencies are still working out what the actual implementation will look like when it takes effect next month.
In February testimony to the L.A. City Council (minute 3:00:40), City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo stated that “[Measure HLA] will be effective five weeks – roughly five weeks – after the election, should the voters approve the item.”
“What that means is that,” Szabo continued, “this body [City Council] will be asked to make funding decisions immediately.”
Despite the city approving its Mobility Plan in 2015 and HLA qualifying for the ballot in 2022 – spurring the city to begin to draft a similar “Safe Streets” ordinance – today the city appears to have more questions than answers.
The city could have made contingency plans in case it passed, especially since the city council had promised to come up with an even better alternative HLA last year, but never followed through.
And now they have to scramble to come up with something in just the next few weeks.
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Meanwhile, a columnist for the Southern California News Group somehow blames HLA, and similarly just passed California Proposition 1, for budget deficits and cutbacks.
Even though neither ones even gone into effect yet.
In defense of the free-spenders, guys like me have been blubbering in newspapers and on talk radio for eons about the consequences of budget deficits, yet the sun continues to rise each morning. Somehow, we stumble through each fiscal year with the usual headlines about layoffs and cutbacks to programs that help paper-over the shortfalls. We’re already reading about school closures, hiring freezes and the inevitable layoffs resulting from HLA and previous spending binges, including Mayor Karen Bass’s homelessness initiatives and LAPD hiring plans. Those who lose their jobs or have their program cut will pay the price. But as long as it’s not our job in jeopardy, as long as somebody else’s taxes get raised… shampoo, rinse, repeat. We’ve seen this movie before. Fiscal “Groundhog Day.”
So for anyone unclear on the subject, literally no one has lost their job because of HLA. Nor has a single school closed as a result of the ballot measure.
Or is likely to.
If anything, HLA could mean additional hiring to implement the city’s mobility plan as streets are resurfaced. And even if the city somehow faced budget problems as a result of the measure, it could compensate by just slowing down the street resurfacing program.
Never mind that most of the $3.1 billion that City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo spuriously projected as the cost for the measure was actually for sidewalk repairs the city is already obligated for as the result of a previous court settlement.
Or that school funding has absolutely nothing to do with the city budget.
But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good political screed?
Or even a bad one, in this case.
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The San Diego Union-Tribune offers an update on the tragic death of Ryan Currie, who was found lying injured near the beginning of an Encinitas curb-protected bike lane.
The story reports that 32 bicyclists have been injured along the one-mile bike lane since 2020, raising questions about its safety. Although the only way to judge whether it has increased risk is to compare it to the number and severity of any injuries before it was installed.
Tragically, Currie’s four children are now orphaned, after their mother died of cancer in 2019.
Thanks to Phillip Young and Malcomb Watson for the heads-up.
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It’s now 96 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 33 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Massachusetts college student is in a medically induced coma after suffered traumatic brain injury, along with broken clavicle, broken hip and a punctured lung, because a driver forced her off the road and into a brick wall while bicycling in Spain; her parents are trying to crowdfund $250,000 to fly her back to the US for treatment.
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Local
Mark your calendar for April 21st, when CicLAvia returns to Venice Blvd.
Glendale wants your input for proposed bicycle facilities on Glenoaks Blvd, particularly if you live in the area.
An unemployed South Bay man went from reselling ebikes from a beach chair on Hermosa Ave to owning his own ebike shop on the same street.
State
Calbike is asking you to email the state senate Transportation Committee to show your support for SB 960, which would require Caltrans to implement Complete Streets policies for the corridors under its control. Like on PCH, aka SoCal’s killer highway.
A La Jolla man is creating Strava art by using his bike to outline animals, plants and other shapes across San Diego County.
San Diego is set to receive over $220 million for road, bicycle and pedestrian projects, including funding for 265 miles of new and improved bike lanes on state highways.
This is who we share the road with. A 65-year-old Riverside County woman was violently attacked by a road-raging driver as she attempted to record him trying to fight a neighbor who had yelled at him to slow down in their residential neighborhood.
Monterey is gearing up for next month’s 34th edition of the Sea Otter Classic, which promises to be the largest yet.
National
Imports of ebikes fell slightly last year, partially offsetting a drastic drop in non-electric bikes imports, as ebikes continue to grab a larger share of bicycle sales. Thanks to PeddleEd for the link.
Cycling News lists the best bike brands they trust, out of the more than 100 bike makes on the market.
Tragic news from Honolulu, where two people riding bicycles were collateral damage when a 20-year old speeding driver lost control of his vehicle, hit a utility pole, and landed in the crosswalk they were riding in.
Hundreds of people turned out for Portland’s 20th Annual Worst Day of the Year ride, as the weather appeared to live up to its billing.
Colorado bike shops will have to float the cost of the state’s $450 ebike vouchers for nearly a year before they can expect to be reimbursed by the state, which could limit participation in the program since few bike shops can afford to carry the added debt.
A 24-year old Colorado woman was arrested in Arkansas, two months after she fled the Rocky Mountain state to avoid charges for the hit-and-run death of a man riding a bicycle; she’s accused of knocking the 43-year old victim off his bike and over an embankment, and taking his bike to hide evidence of the crime.
The post-pandemic bike bust claims another victim, as a more than 140-year old Cleveland bike shop is set to close this year.
International
Momentum explores the five best Reddit communities for urban bicyclists.
Velo rates the world’s five best rides for roadies, including a ride around California’s Lake Tahoe.
Just in time for the Christian Holy Week, Bike Radar lists pilgrimages you can make by bicycle instead of on foot, ranging from 40 to 1,300 miles.
British Columbia ebike maker Biktrix suffered a massive loss when thieves drove up in a semi, and stole a shipping container holding $1 million work of new ebikes and unreleased prototypes.
Montreal-based Memento Cycles won the People’s Choice category at this year’s Philly Bike Expo with a steel gavel bike intended as a tribute to the LGBTQ community.
A writer for The Standard says yes, bicyclists can be annoying, but it’s drivers who are the real problem in London.
No surprise here, as a new Edinburgh study shows commuting by bicycle results in better mental health. Which virtually anyone who’s ever done it could tell you.
The parents of a fallen Glasgow bicyclist surprisingly call for more people to get on their bikes, arguing there is safety in numbers.
Life is cheap in England, where dashcam video captured a careless driver crash into two women bicyclists, resulting in life-changing injuries to both victims, yet the 20-year driver got just ten lousy months behind bars, and was banned from driving for two years. If you ever wonder why people keep dying on the streets, slap-on-the-wrist sentences like this are a good place to start.
This is who we share the road with, too. A UK TikTok influencer filmed himself doing 90 mph in a 30 mph residential neighborhood, with just one hand on the wheel of his new Porsche, safety be damned. Which should be reason enough to take the damn thing away from him. Permanently.
A British bike mechanic says there’s no tangible benefit to spending the equivalent of $12,600 or more on a bicycle.
An Irish cop was cleared of all wrongdoing after serving a three-year suspension for giving a lousy $50 unclaimed bicycle to an elderly man in need; needless to say, he intends to sue, although the story is hidden behind a paywall.
A French bicyclist learned the hard way to pay his fines, after the penalty for wearing headphones while riding tripled to 400 Euros — the equivalent of $433 — although he claims he never received a notice.
Former Singapore Transport Minister S Iswaran faces corruption charges, after he’s accused of receiving several gifts, including a new Brompton. The rest might be a problem, but taking the foldie seems totally understandable. And the whiskey.
Competitive Cycling
A new Belgian study suggest that if you want to win in the pro peloton, don’t have kids, because becoming a father adversely impacts the performance of professional road cyclists.
Dutch pro Lorena Wiebes edged out Italy’s Elisa Balsamo to win the women’s Gent-Wevelgem in a photo finish; Mads Pedersen and Mathieu van der Poel took first and second on the men’s side.
The 23-year old Ukrainian refugee accused of killing US junior cyclist Magnus White rejected a proposed plea deal that could have seen her sentenced to as little as two years behind bars, as prosecutors suspect she was literally asleep at the wheel.
Finally…
You can find lots of things while riding a bike, including the occasional body. Your next ebike could be patterned after Swiss cheese.
And yes, she has more bike skills than most of us combined.
https://twitter.com/OverThinking_ar/status/1771168187423281351
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
